It's official.

Two-and-a-half months into the Atlantic season — and, after four previous storm systems failed to materialize into one of significance — the region has its first documented hurricane.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Hurricane Center announced Friday that Tropical Storm Erin is now a Category 1 hurricane, packing sustained winds of at least 75 mph.

While NOAA said forecast models had Erin tracking far-off the East Coast, the agency said it could still impact South Shore Atlantic Ocean beaches by midweek next week with "dangerous surf" posing possible erosion damage and also generating potentially life-threatening rip currents.

On Friday, the system was still hundreds of miles east of the northern Leeward Islands and the Caribbean Sea, including the U.S

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